Clinical and Molecular Diagnosis of Parvovirus Infection in Household Dogs

Abstract

Canine parvovirus is a serious famous virus in dogs worldwide, causing great danger to their health. The present study was carried out on 100 diseased dogs of different ages, breeds, and both sexes. All clinical symptoms were recorded and classified. Fecal samples were collected for two purposes, firstly for detection of parvovirus antigen using rapid agglutination test, and secondly for extraction and molecular diagnosis of the disease using PCR technique. The principal clinical signs that were recorded included: fever, loss of appetite, bloody diarrhea, vomiting, dehydration. These signs appeared together in almost all cases and the characteristic signs syndrome was involved fever + loss of appetite + Bloody diarrhea. The disease showed high distribution in males (81.3%), while the females were less infected (66.7%). The results of the study revealed a high incidence of the disease in dogs up to or less than 6 months of age (87.1%) whereas the clinical cases were least in older dogs (57.9%), and depending on the breed the most cases were in German shepherd (29%), Husky (14%), local breeds (12%) and others. The clinical cases were also classified according to the period of gathering during the study and the peak of cases was in December (23 cases) to January (29 cases). The techniques were used for the diagnosis of the disease displayed high accuracy since rapid test results showed (68%) of cases were positive for CPV, and PCR results were higher than that rate (76%). Both couples of primers revealed the same results for the detection of CPV. In conclusion, CPV is a serious disease in household dogs in Mosul city and more dominant during winter, although the results of PCR were higher both techniques showed satisfactory results for the detection of CPV. It's recommended to diagnose the strains of CPV that distributing in Mosul city.